Location: Irkutsk
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What to do and see in Irkutsk, Siberian District: The Best Monuments & Statues
Founded in the mid-17th century as a winter quarters for traders and tax collectors, Irkutsk came to prominence in the 1800s. Participants in the Decembrist revolt against Tsar Nicholas I were exiled to Siberia in droves, turning Irkutsk into their cultural center. Today, it’s one of Siberia’s biggest and most important cities, with over half a million people, many universities, many historic churches and museums, and beautiful Lake Baikal, just about an hour away by train.
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1. Monument Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line of Duty
2. Monument to the Founders of Irkutsk
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 308 reviews
Reviewed By saronic - Zurich, Switzerland
When strolling along the Nizhnya Naberezhnaya, the Lower Embankment, one will come to an about 6m high monument, just opposite the place, where the river Irkut flows into the larger Angara river. This is supposed to be the spot, where in 1661 the Cossack leader Yakov Pokhabov had an 'ostrog' built, a for Russia and especially Siberia typical small fortress out of wood and surrounded by a palisade. Pokhabov had been in the area since 15 years already, visiting the Khan of Mongolia and exploring Lake Baikal, occupied with gold trading and collecting fur taxes for the tsar from the local Buryats. Before a dam was built the stretch of the Angara river from here to Lake Baikal had been almost impossible to navigate. so Irkutsk began to develop, especially as a center of commerce between Russia and China, so another 15 years after the construction of the ostrog Irkutsk received town rights. the monument was unveiled in 2011, thus 350 years after the foundation of Irkutsk. On top of a tall red marble pedestal is a bronze statue of a typical cossack, only later named after Yakov Pokhabov. The monument is the creation of Mikhail Pereyaslavets, the prolific Moscow sculptor, best known for his work of patriotic-military figures. In Irkutsk can be seen another sculpture of his: the Monument to the Wives of the Decembrists near the Volkonsky Manor House.
3. Monument to Admiral Alexander Kolchak
4. Monument to Alexander III
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 141 reviews
Reviewed By sergeyk147
Imposing awe-inspiring monument - as was the man whom it is dedicated to. It's ludicrous that when Soviet communists demolished it they still preserved not only the plinth but also all of its three bas-reliefs. While the first one was to Yermak, a "proletarian" conquistador who started subjugation of Siberia in the XVIth century, the second depicted a "bourgei" and "class enemy" count Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky (who incorporated Far East into Russian empire taking it from China three hundred years later) and the third a "tzarist henchman" Mikhail Speransky (he was governor-general of Siberia in 1819-1821 with his seat in Irkutsk). Never stop amazing how narrow-minded those commies were... History made fun of profane humanity transformers even when they still were in power - in the seventies Irkutsk dwellers called a stele clumsily pulled down upon the old plinth "a limpdick's dream". Anyhow, Alexander III is back in place reminding us again of his merits to the empire. He might be a controversial ruler but al least he didn't dump millions of his compatriots in labour camps and never started a single war.
5. Tourist Monument
6. Monument to Employees of Kuibyshev Factory Who Died During The Great Patriotic War
7. Leonid Gaidai Statue
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 77 reviews
Reviewed By saronic - Zurich, Switzerland
On central Labor Square next to the Circus and with the Rostelecom Building at the back is a monument with two sets of rather caricaturistic bronze sculptures facing each other. Russians, especially from the elder generation will immediately recognize the figures involved. Most foreigners will have to put up with the information given in Russian, English and Chinese on a nearby board. To my mind came photographs and figures in Yerevan's restaurant 'Kavkazkaya Plennitsa', where I used to go for dinner not too long ago. It refers to one of the most famous movies of Soviet times: 'The Kaukasian Captive' of 1966, later also known in English as 'Kidnapping, Caucasian Style'). At the center of this movie were three mischievous figures: Byvalyy' (the Fool), Balbes (the Coward), Trus (the Pro), which are depicted here together in the sculpture to the west, holding hands. They are watched from the opposite side by a seated Leonid Gavai, the lanky movie director with glasses, and the dog Rex on his side, holding a stick of dynamite in his mouth, with which he became famous in the movie 'The Dog Barbos', which also involved the three crooks already mentioned and who appeared in most of Gaidai's movie-comedies. That there is a sculpture of Leonid Gaidai here, has to do with the fact that this Siberian-born director had studied theatre in Irkutsk before going to the Moscow Institute of Cinematography and later becoming immensely successful in this country with his entertaining movies. Since they refer a lot to Soviet realities of the time, they didn't become much known abroad. The sculpture was unveiled in 2012, almost 20 years after the director had passed away.
8. Monument to Wifes of Decembrists
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 20 reviews
Reviewed By saronic - Zurich, Switzerland
To study the importance of the Decembrists for Irkutsk and Eastern Siberia in general it makes sense to go to an area a bit east of the city centre, where there are 3 sights not far from each other connected to personalities of this revolutionary movement: the Volkonsky House, the Trubetskoy House and the Monument to the Wives of the Decembrists. When the uprising of December 26th, 1825 in St.Petersburg failed, the conspirators were either executed or their death sentence commuted to 20 years 'katorga' (penal labor) and permanent banishment to Siberia. All in all 120 men were deported eastwards, often army officers from the nobility, but there were also 18 women, who chose to follow their husbands, sons or brothers. Among the best known women were Princess Yekaterina Trubetskoya, the first woman, who decided to join her husband, and Princess Mariya Volkonskaya, wife of the only active army general, who had joined the Decembrist. After the 'katorga' was over they came to live in Irkutsk, where they promoted the cultural and social life of the town. The bronze statue here represents Mariya Volkonskaya, who has been immortalized also in the literary oeuvre of Alexander Pushkin. The monument was erected in 2011 with the sculpture a work by noted artist Mikhail Pereyaslavets, by whom alone in this city can also be admired the big statue of the cossack at the Monument to the Founders of Irkutsk and the statue of playwright Alexander Vampilov near the Drama Theatre.
9. Monument to CItizens of Irkutsk Who Died in the Performance of Military Duty
10. Statue of Vampilov
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 41 reviews
Reviewed By 416DavidR416 - London, United Kingdom
Striking statue of this rising young playwright who died too young. He has another simple monument at the mouth of the Angara river near Listvyanka
